Unlucky lewis is not to blame

McLAREN chief Martin Whitmarsh has leaped to the defence of Lewis Hamilton following the ex-champ's second shunt in two races.

Whitmarsh insisted Hamilton did nothing wrong in his attempted pass of Red Bull's Mark Webber in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton was clipped by Webber after nudging ahead on the outside of Turn Seven. The resulting damage put the Brit out of the race.

Hamilton, who had to retire after colliding with Felipe Massa's Ferrari in the previous race at Monza, immediately knew he had suffered another major blow in his title challenge.

And he threw his steering wheel out of the cockpit in disgust.

Whitmarsh conceded some critics would take a pop at Hamilton for having two incidents on the trot.

But he said of the Singapore shunt: "I think Lewis was very unlucky.

"If you look at what happened he did not make a late lunge.

"We can get heated about blame but I think Mark has got to race as well.

"The important thing from my perspective was that from Lewis it was not a desperate overtaking manoeuvre, it was a solid overtaking manoeuvre.

"Whenever you overtake in any form of motor racing there is a degree of risk. And he was unlucky it did not come off this time."

A steward's inquiry was opened into the incident but concluded no further action would be taken.

Webber escaped unscathed and went on to finish third.